8 inspiring dropout billionaires of the tech industry

﻿Not everyone who drops out of college starts an amazing company, but these 8 entrepreneurs make a strong caseET Bureau | Updated: April 11, 2016, 11:28 IST

Self-learning has been a trend among entrepreneurs. And the list of billionaire dropouts is long.

Halfway through, Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to start Facebook. Michael Dell dropped out after his first year at the University of Texas. Larry Ellison too dropped out after his mother died and Bill Gates lasted only three years at Harvard.

Not everybody who drops out of college starts an amazing company the next day. Steve Jobs dropped out as college was too expensive.

In fact, if the decision to drop out or not boils down to economics, all you need is comparing the company's numbers with what you could do with the money you might be spending on tuition. Here is a list of dropout entrepreneurs:

In 1998, Kalanick dropped out of the University of California, Los Angeles with a couple of friends. Together they set up various search engines and file transfer software. In 2009, he founded Uber which is now worth $62 billion.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook - Dropped out at 20

Zuckerberg, while still in high school, developed Pandora. He then created 'The Facebook' while he was in his sophomore year at Harvard University and left college in 2004 to manage the company. Facebook today is worth $190 billion.

Ukrainian Jan Koum came to America in 1992 with his mother at the age of 16. He then enrolled at San Jose State University in 1995, which he left to join Yahoo after he was offered a job. It was here that he met Brian Acton with whom he founded WhatsApp in 2004.

Larry Ellison, Oracle - Dropped out at 20

Larry Ellison dropped out of two universities: The University of Illinois and then the University of Chicago. In 1966, he moved to Northern California and worked at various jobs where he earned his computer skills. In 1977 he set up Oracle.

Michael Dell, Dell - Dropped out at 19

Dell self-funded his first computer with $1,000 in 1984. He worked from his dorm room while he was studying at the University of Texas. He sold them to his classmates and the company earned $6 million.

Bill Gates, Microsoft - Dropped out at 20

Gates was a law student at Harvard University, but his passion since childhood was computers. In 1976, he left Harvard to join Paul Allen at MITS, and then founded their own company creating software for different computer companies.